Thread: What Do You Recycle?

3 or the 4 of my shed rubbish bins are recycled 20L paint tubs.
Two are for general waste - one at each end of the shed.
At the MW end I have one for metal/swarf.
I have a swing top bin I picked up from the side of the road for plastic and cardboard recycling.

Not only do I use recycled material as mentioned above but I also incorporate recycled material into my woodwork projects ,I`ll get together a list of what I`ve used and some pics.

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Kuffy Another item I didn't mention is the plastic shopping bags. I have several of these hanging around the shed at any one time so I can throw waste (waste that is yucky as opposed to recyclable waste) in them. Trouble is, SWMBO is on an anti-plastic campaign and I am starting to run out of them. I may have to re-think down the track.Regards Paul

Do you buy bread that's in plastic bags? They should work well for the yucky stuff.
I use margarine containers for storage of odds n sods, small bits and pieces, when I pull something apart, I write on the lid the location where they came from.
Also use them for pouring excess casting resins in, to make pen blanks.
The lids also serve as good mixing trays for 5 minute araldite or bog
Small pill bottles as protectors on cable connectors for the Miniature Christmas Pagent displays,
Plastic meat trays are used under the pen mandrel, to catch the water used for micro meshing.
Plastic cutting boards, get recycled for mixing large quantities of bog, also used for changing the sanding discs on the disc sander, without taking off the table.
The thicker ones get used for slot guides on sliding jigs for bandsaw, etc.
Paddle pop sticks for mixing the above and araldite, the odd shaped Magnum sticks also used for this.
Plastic Peanut butter and honey jars are used for storage of screws and nails. These are stored in a clamshell cabinet made from 12 mm ply, with 7mm ply front and back, to use less wall space.
DSCF0128.jpgDSCF0127.jpg
Kryn

This is one of my faves. Old taps used in a saw vice
Jaws are left overs from house skirting boards, and some blue gum battens found in a skip.
Sawvice4.jpg

Originally Posted by BobL

This is one of my faves. Old taps used in a saw vice
Jaws are left overs from house skirting boards, and some blue gum battens found in a skip.
Sawvice4.jpg

A work of art.

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Kuffy

You may like to consider eating more ice blocks and contributing to the bottom line of the wine makers.

Another item I didn't mention is the plastic shopping bags. I have several of these hanging around the shed at any one time so I can throw waste (waste that is yucky as opposed to recyclable waste) in them. Trouble is, SWMBO is on an anti-plastic campaign and I am starting to run out of them. I may have to re-think down the track.

Regards
Paul

my current solution is the bags supplied to put your veges in. Surprisingly little waste gets generated by my workshop/ household. I have a way of getting rid of dust and chip for free mostly. Vegetable scraps are composted. Off cuts are turned into products mostly. I used to do a brazier in winter but that is not appropriate where I am now and prolly don’t have the fuel for it. It is my recycling bin that gets hammered.

Iwish i I could put that out each week. I also wish we could do something with it. That is a topic for another thread.

Originally Posted by BobL

This is one of my faves. Old taps used in a saw vice
Jaws are left overs from house skirting boards, and some blue gum battens found in a skip.
Sawvice4.jpg

Now we're talking. Love it.



Regards
Paul

I have just had a mental tour of the workshop, too darn cold to go in there at the moment. A wide ranging list follows, some items are re-purposed as against recycled, but might be useful thought provokers.

Old X-rays used as shim material and as a non stick gluing surface.

Old soft drink cans as shim material.

Magnets from old hard disks, loud speakers and microwave ovens as holders for Allen keys etc on the side of lathes, bandsaws etc.

The actual hard disk from a hard drive makes a good mirror or as a disc on a wooden spinning top. Old CD's and DVD's make good spinning tops as well.

Magnetic material from L and P plates glued onto jigs used on metal surfaces such as table saws and router tables.

Keyless drill chucks from stuffed drills attached to turned wooden handles to hold countersink bits for deburring holes.

Peanut butter jars and the like for screw storage. Actually, the square honey jars are ideal as they take up less room on a shelf than an equivalent round jar.

Big rubber bands from around the local paper for a multitude of clamping jobs.

Old office chairs have heaps of 'T' nuts in the plywood seat plus the castors of course.

The steel shaft in a cars suspension strut makes a nice tool rest bar on a wood lathe.

Pieces of copper tube and aluminium tubing from folding chairs as ferrules.

An old diamond rimmed angle grinder wheel as a wheel dresser on a bench grinder.

Micro switches from microwaves as limit switches for those fiddling with CNC type router and laser machines.

An old LCD screen TV or computer monitor has several 'plastic' sheets which may be polycarbonate or perspex - all sorts of uses for jig builders.

Older style computer power supplies as battery chargers and for rust removal using electrolysis.

Muffin fans from old computers for cooling slow revving motors when using a VFD.

Large masonry nails held in a wooden handle as scribers, bradawls etc.

Old triangular files ground smooth as deburring tools, especially for cleaning up the inside of a recently cut PVC pipe.

Shoelaces from old joggers as ties for extension leads.

A multitude of uses for old power hacksaw blades, good steel in these.

Any clip lock bag I acquire goes into a box - super useful for storing small quantities of fasteners where a jar would take up too much storage space.

One arm from an old rabbit ear extendable TV aerial with a rare earth magnet epoxied to the end makes a good pick-up tool for picking up dropped screws etc.

Not to mention the obvious storage uses of take-away containers and 2 and 4 litre ice-cream tubs.

Plastic sauce bottles make great glue bottles, also good for hero, turps, water in the workshop.

All of the above get a second chance before ending up as landfill or possibly being recycled into new material. I might end up with a few more suggestions when it warms up a bit.

Keep warm,

Alan...

No one has mentioned it yet but recycling really means "reprocessing a waste material for an original or a new use".
Simply using a waste or redundant material/device/object without any processing for something not intended as original purpose should probably be called "repurposing".
So glass containers that are crushed and made into new bottles is true "recycling".
Sterlizing a glass milk bottle and reusing it is not really recycling is just "Reuse"

I have done some plastic milk bottle recycling.
Turning Milk Bottles - Page 2

Bob

Recycle vs Re-purpose?

From our mate Google:

• to treat or process (used or waste materials) so as to make suitable for reuse:recycling paper to save trees.
• to alter or adapt for new use without changing the essential form or nature of:The old factory is being recycled as a theater.
• to use again in the original form or with minimal alteration:The governor recycled some speeches from his early days.
• to cause to pass through a cycle again:to recycle laundry through a washing machine.

In terms of common usage I think you have me on a technicality there .

I think either type is acceptable in this thread. Just on recycling I have kept aluminium swarf and lead for melting down.

I think UncleAl could be related to Steptoe. An amazing array of re-purposing!

Regards
Paul

I agree is splitting hairs, but good fodder for forums.
For me mostly, Recycling goes in a bin and repurposing/reuse goes on the verge.

Reusing old power adapters is a big money saver for me. With all my electronics projects (dust detectors, temperature and humidity and gas sensors etc) I use up a fair few 5, 9 and 12V power adapters. About 20 years ago I started collecting them and now have a cardboard box full of them and hardly ever have to buy one, just change the plug and maybe polarity to suit the project.

Verge crawling usually produces a half dozen or so every year and most of them are still working OK.
One thing though, you do need to check their output. It's not unusual for them to output double their stated Voltage.

In a way I wish this thread had never been started. I've been intending (for quite a while now) a bit of a shed declutter.
Well the list of stuff that can't be chucked has now got longer. Say la vie.
Regards
John

Originally Posted by orraloon

In a way I wish this thread had never been started. I've been intending (for quite a while now) a bit of a shed declutter.
Well the list of stuff that can't be chucked has now got longer. Say la vie.

I hear you John.

I posted a couple of items that I recycle/repurpose, but seeing the list of what others do, I realized that I also have quite a few more items that I recycle. Uncle Al mentioned shim materials. I have a box of various items of known thicknesses just waiting for the opportunity to shim something. Come to think of it a lot of my shimming materials are plastic packaging, the likes of which they are trying to convince us to reduce, so I better hang on to it in case it becomes scarce.

Originally Posted by orraloon

In a way I wish this thread had never been started. I've been intending (for quite a while now) a bit of a shed declutter.
Well the list of stuff that can't be chucked has now got longer. Say la vie.

Given that space is becoming scarcer and scarcer in most of our sheds I'm increasingly coming round to the point of view that places like Bunnings are an alternative storage space for low value items. Keeping stuff that has a low probability of being used now gets a increasingly shorter residence time in my shed before being disposed of. I feel less guilty about things if they can go in the recycling bin or given away especially if it leads to space recovery. The hardest thing I find to get rid of is "interesting" pieces of wood but I have to admit I have been able to find these way faster than I have used them.

One lot of things that going soon is my vacuum cleaner hose collection (mainly scavenged from the side of the road). I had in mind to use these for a ducted vac system but when I saw 50 mm PVC pipe costs about $2.50/m and readily available and not taking up space - those hoses are all going on the verge where there seems to be an endless supply anyway if I ever need more.